Alternate names: Pułtusk [Pol], Pultosk, פולטוסק [Yid], Pultusk, Пултуск [Rus, Ger], Ostenburg [Ger, 1941-45], Poltosk. 52°43' N, 21°06' E, 33 miles N of Warszawa, 23 miles SE of Ciechanów. 1900 Jewish population: 5,603. Yizkors: Pultusk; sefer zikaron (Tel Aviv, 1971) and Dzieje społeczności żydowskiej: powiatów Pułtusk i Maków Mazowiecki (Warsaw, 1993). This town by the river Narew in the Masovian Voivodship has about 19,000 inhabitants and had a strong Jewish presence in Pułtusk before the Holocaust. The first Jews settled in the 15th century, but the community began to flourish in the 19th century. Around 1700, 120 Jews lived in the city, increasing to nearly 7,000 in the mid-1800s. 1900 Jewish population was about 6,000, decreasing because WWII and bad economic conditions that encouraged moving to other cities and immigrating overseas. The pre-Holocaust population of 8,300 Jews was about 50% of the total population. On September 7, 1939, Nazi Germany occupied the city. The Jews were deported to the Soviet Union. Virtual shtetl. [June 2009]

CEMETERY: Located on ul. Ogrodowej, the cemetery was established in the 1820s in conjunction with the development of the Pułtusk Jewish community. Zelman Lubranitzer donated the funds. The cemetery was destroyed during WW II when the Nazis forced the Jewish population to break up gravestones for construction work including the park and courtyard stairs at the castle that were still there in 1975. Part of the matzevot became curbstones and paving of streets including ul Piotra Skargi. After liberation, the cemetery held a large number of gravestones. In the 1950s, the gravestones were broken and gone. In 1963, the cemetery became the property on which Broken factory was built. An engineer, who gave the command to remove the last gravestones, supposedly was kidnapped ors and murdered. Dozens of matzevot are preserved in the local museum, but not available for public viewing being in the museum storage. Recently added were two damaged tombstones located in the Pułtusk Archives for years. Unfortunately, the employees of the museum twice ignored requests for permission to photograph the matzevot photos. [June 2009]

UPDATE: I have recently been informed that twenty tombstones are in Pultusk Museum; one tombstone is in the estate at Stoneczna 40 St.; five tombstones are in Archiwum in Pultusk. No headstones left at the site of the cemetery. I will attempt to gain permission to have the headstones located at the museum and the headstones located at the two additional sites in Pultusk photographed by whatever means I can arrange. Stewart Bernstein, Moderator-Pultusk Area Interest Group.
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[9 Dec 2000]

US Commission No. POCE000379

Alternate name: Ostenburg (German). Pultusk is located in Ciechanow at 52º4321º06, 19km from Makow Maz and 60 km from Warsaw. The cemetery is located at Kolejowa St.. Present population is 25,000-100,000 with no Jews

The earliest known Jewish community in town was 1486. 1931 Jewish population (census) was 6400. Living here were Rabbi Joszua Trunk, Rabbi Jesroel Ber Lowental, and Rabbi Chenoch Zundel Gradzinski. The last known Jewish burial in the Orthodox, Sephardic Orthodox, Conservative, and Progressive/Reform cemetery was 1939. The suburban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open with permission. A continuous fence with locking gate surrounds the cemetery. The size of cemetery before WWII and now is 1.00 hectares. No gravestones are visible. Twenty tombstones are in Museum Putlusk; one tombstone is at Stoneczna St 40; five tombstones are in Archiwum in Pultusk. The removed sandstone tombstones have Hebrew inscriptions. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. A regional or national governmenal agency owns property used for industrial or commercial use. Properties adjacent are agricultural and residential. Rarely, private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II, but not within the last ten years. No maintenance. There are no traces of the cemetery left. During the 1960's, a "POLAM" enterprise was built within the limits of the cemetery.